I won’t lie. This review was inspired mainly by No_Shot’s glowing review of a game that the creator herself marks off as a test file for her better games. I decided to dive into this “A” game and see if its accolades were well deserved.

Graphics

As usual for Komera, the graphics are top notch, and some of the rats in the game get unique animations, like playing cards or laughing. However, most of the game’s graphics are repetitive, with large portions of the game nothing but the same dozen tiles for large lengths of hallway, confusing the player as to where they are, where they’re going, and boring them to boot.

Storyline

Thin to almost nonexistent. As Radar, a maze runner who is both praised for her ability in the mazes and looked down because of it, you enter the game with your fellow rats urging you to hurry to the races, which don’t actually exist in the game. Strike one! >_< After wandering around confused for awhile, you find a computer display screen in an empty room that warns of a breach in the “envo” wall. Warning your fellow rats does no good however, since most don’t believe you, and the few who do send you on a wild goose chase after a rat who doesn’t exist in the demo. Not very engaging, and in fact, very annoying, since the vast majority of the storyline elements don’t exist in the game. Kudos to Komera for making the NPCs very responsive to in-game changes, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from fighting the urge to quit the game after a few minutes.

Gameplay

Argh. Wander around until you stumble upon something related to the story, wander around until that story point triggers an NPC to say something new, repeat until sick, or until the next person you’re suppose to talk to doesn’t exist.

Battle

N/A

Map Design

Oooh, long boring hallways with flashy lights, an incomplete floor with nothing on it, and most of your game time spent wandering around these areas. While the computer rooms and bedrooms are fairly well designed, the vast majority of the “gameplay” is hindered by the map design. What really messes things up is that every door requires you to talk to an access panel next to it and insert your identification card. While it’s a fairly neat plotscripting trick to begin with, it becomes an annoyance very fast when the main focus of the game is wandering through the halls talking to the same bunch of NPCs. Come on Komera. I could see important doors that lead into security areas, but EVERY door?

Balance

No battles, but if we’re talking in general, extremely unfair. Being told to go talk to a rat that doesn’t exist or go to a place that hasn’t been built yet sets up Radar Rat Race to be a very frustrating game.

Music

Well, you’ve got “Three Blind Mice” for the title screen, and a track that comes with the OHR engine for the rest of the game, and gets old really fast. Turn your speakers off after a few minutes and save yourself a headache later.

Enjoyment

Wandering around long, boring maps, talking to the same two dozen NPCs, even if they have different things to say each time, isn’t fun. Realizing that the NPC’s send you off on quests that can’t be completed, isn’t fun. Having to do a little dance with every door to wander around, isn’t fun. While I can’t say I expected much from a test demo, I really wish Komera had asked people not to review it.

Final Blows

There’s some neat plotscripting to see, but I wouldn’t encourage anyone to download this game unless they were trying to build an archive of OHR games.

Argh!

Final Scores

Graphics: 4/10.0

Needs more variety. A LOT more variety.

Storyline: 3/10.0

There’s barely enough here to warrant a 3.

Gameplay: 2/10.0

I guess talking to NPCs over and over again is a KIND of gameplay...

Music: 2/10.0

Well, it’s GOT music...

Enjoyment: 1/10.0

Enjoyment Comment- Quite frankly, this game isn’t any fun.

Overall Grade:
D-

Final Thoughts

It’s a tech demo, not a game. Game’s usually have things like engaging stories, tasks to do, and a sense of purpose. Because of the incomplete nature of RRRRPG, it lacks all of these things.